A wine's vintage can read like an almanac

The year listed on the front label of a bottle of wine is referred to as the wine's vintage.

That is the year when the grapes that make up the wine were harvested.

Generally, the vintage of a current-release red wine is two to fours behind the current year. For white wines, it is one or two years.

Some people pay close attention to the vintage. It is the serious wine aficionado who is attuned to wines' subtle variations and has zeroed in on certain years as having produced wines that highlight the favored characteristics.

Some less-experienced wine drinkers are interested in the vintage because they have heard it is important and because it is one of the few ways to judge a wine by reading the label.

But, for most people in the middle, there is only mild interest in a wine's vintage.

Yes, vintage matters; there are better and worse years for growing grapes and producing wines.

But in my opinion, it doesn't matter a whole lot. The variations that happen between vintages, especially among California wines, are small.

You may find you prefer one vintage over another but it's highly unlikely that you will love one vintage and hate another vintage of the same wine. If you find a wine you like, from a winery you like, from a region you like, there's a strong chance you will like the vintage the year before and the vintage the year after.

The biggest thing that causes vintage variation is the weather. In Northern California this year, we may have an early arriving spring and that may cause the grapes to ripen sooner. Two years ago, we had unusually strong rains late in the spring that pummeled the fragile grape buds early in their cycle.

In 2010, there were a couple of extreme heat spells in the summertime that stressed the grapes as they were maturing.

Drought, wild fires and low-air quality all can have an impact on the quantity and quality of grapes growing in a region in a given vintage, and, therefore, on the quantity and quality of the region's wines.

Since nature is infinitely creative, we are favored with ever-varying conditions.

Those conditions show up in the grapes -- in their sugars, their acidity, their complexity, their color and their ultimate ripeness.

That variety, in turn, shows up in the wine.

Vintage is a broad term, encompassing the conditions of an entire region in a certain year.

Things that may change at individual wineries -- new winemaker, new fermentation facility, different blend for their cab -- are not included, even though they may have more profound impacts on the wines, at least for the winery in question.

At the same time, for an individual winery, it is the combination of all these things, both natural and human made, that goes into the bottle.

So what may be a great year for one winery's wines may not be at all remarkable for their next-door neighbor.

The winemaker makes a new batch of wines every year. He takes what nature gives him, together with all the things done by the vineyard crew throughout the season. He has experience and expertise. He knows what he is trying to create in terms of flavor, color, texture and balance.

He knows what his customers prefer.

What comes out of that roiling cauldron each year is new and, to discerning palates, unique.

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Kevin Quinn's book, "It's Your Wine, Drink It," is now available for Kindle and in paperback. Search Kevin Quinn Wine on Amazon.com or contact him at kevinquinn.wine@yahoo.com or (707) 334-0421. YourWineGuyKevin on Facebook.